FNF Survey of Holiday Parenting Time 2016

Thousands of children are denied a meaningful relationship with their children after separation and this Easter Families Need Fathers draws attention to the failures of compliance and enforcement of family court orders made in children’s interests.

FNF carried out a survey of members and supporters to help gain an understanding of their experience of parenting arrangements post-separation last Christmas. We received 402 responses.

Almost half of respondents’ (46.1%) children did not see their other parent this Christmas.

A notable finding is that half of respondents (50.8%) had a court order in place for contact with their children during this period. However, in 56.6% of cases the order was not obeyed.

Of those who were not seeing their children, almost three-quarters did not even receive a card or gift from their children (72.9%) or have the opportunity to speak to them on the telephone (76.2%).

For many respondents, whether there was a court order in place or not, the difficulties are not new. Almost half (46.6%) did not see their children the year before either, a further quarter (26.0%) had not seen their children in the last 3 – 5 years and over a quarter of respondents (27.4%) had not seen their children at Christmas for over 5 years!

For those whose children were lucky enough to have parenting time with both parents this Christmas/New Year period it was reassuring to find that over two-thirds (68.7%) spent more than a day with their children. A further 7.4% enjoyed a day with their children. However, a quarter (24.0%) spent less than half a day over the entire period with their children and 13.4% had less than three hours of parenting time.

FNF’s CEO, Jerry Karlin, said “These are very dispiriting but not surprising results. Christmas is a sensitive time for children and parents alike. That so many people are reporting that court orders made in the interests of children are not being complied with reflects badly on the family justice system. That so many supporters report that they have not seen their children for many years just adds weight to this”.